


Only A Memory

by TJ_Dragonblade



Category: Saiyuki
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-05-28
Updated: 2006-05-28
Packaged: 2017-10-29 01:17:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/314245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TJ_Dragonblade/pseuds/TJ_Dragonblade
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Monkeys have nightmares too.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Only A Memory

**Author's Note:**

> Started: 5/20/06  
> Drafted: 5/27/06

It was a faint noise that woke Hakuryuu. A tiny noise, really, and quite indistinct - a sigh, or a strained breath, or perhaps a shifting of blankets. There was something to it, however, some minute nuance of sound that signified distress.

One of his charges was not sleeping peacefully.

The little dragon uncurled from his customary nest at Hakkai's side - it was not this one tonight, thankfully - and hopped up to the windowsill to survey the room.

All four of his passengers were tucked into narrow beds in the small space; it was all the accomodation they'd been able to find for the night. Hakkai slumbered directly beneath the window, turned on his side with space enough left for Hakuryuu to curl up at his chest. Gojyo sprawled face-down in a tangle of sheets in the next bed, one lanky arm 'round his pillow and the other dangling over the side of the mattress, knuckles grazing the bare floor. Sanzo slept at the far end of the row, turned to face the wall with his back to his companions, a token gesture of distance that was all this room could afford him.

Between Gojyo and Sanzo slept Goku, and it was quickly obvious that it was he who had inadvertently awoken the dragon.

His bedcovers were tossed back and his body was twisted into a position not normal to sleeping. He was crowded to the very edge of the narrow bed as though pressing against some invisible barrier, one hand digging into the corner of the mattress, the other outstretched. He was reaching, reaching for some precious nothing that remained just beyond his grasp, and his face was contorted into an expression of desperate panic.

Hakuryuu launched himself from the windowsill and glided on silent wings to Goku's bed, dropping lightly to rest behind the boy. He tugged gently at the hem of Goku's shirt, exerting just enough suggestion of force to influence the troubled sleeper into rolling partway onto his back, away from the edge. Goku made a tiny sound of distress in the bottom of his throat; the fingers of his outstretched hand closed, then opened again, straining, still reaching. Hakuryuu fluttered quietly into the air, teeth and talons grasping the rumpled blankets, and tucked them gently up around his youngest charge. He settled on Goku's pillow, head tilted to one side, observing with quiet sadness the youth's tightly drawn brow and the single tear that trickled from the corner of one eye back into tousled brown hair. He rubbed the fur of his cheek against the trail of that tear, drying it, and tucked his head down beneath Goku's ear. He purred gently, trilling soft, tiny noises in a rhythm meant to soothe his young friend's troubled dreams.

Goku's breathing slowly evened out, and some of the tension in his body eased. His face, however, remained twisted in distress, and still he reached for whatever lay beyond his grasp.

Taking silently to the air once more, Hakuryuu hovered over Goku's outstretched hand, uncertain how to proceed. He thought that the nightmare might recede if perhaps that desperate reaching were sated; tentatively, he switched the end of his tail gently across Goku's palm.

He was not at all prepared for Goku's hand to fly upward at that touch, nor to be unceremoniously yanked from the air by Goku's fingers closing tight around his body.

Abrupt, irrational panic seized the dragon's heart; it subsided just as quickly. Goku had once promised never to eat him, after all; besides which, the sudden flailing grip had gentled immediately. A soft smile of pure, simple happiness came over Goku's sleeping face; he drew Hakuryuu in close to his chest and settled more soundly in his blankets.

Hakuryuu blinked, not entirely sure what to make of this, and craned around to observe Goku's face once again.

The distressed crease of his brow was no more; his features had smoothed into a proper semblance of peaceful repose at last.

With an air of wry amusement, the little dragon blew out a soft puff of breath and curled himself more comfortably into the crook of Goku's shoulder. Tucking a wing over his young friend's hand around his body, he closed his eyes and let sleep claim him once again.

If it brought the child peace, truly, what was the harm in changing beds for the night?


End file.
